Do you have fast ears? Yngwie haters should probably turn back now.

[chaska]

Shawn Lane was best. Hands down. Not just fast, but an extremely advanced musician. I only regret that his highly original composing skills aren't featured in any of these videos. The guy operated on a plane that unfortunately too few can appreciate.

The bottom clip showcases Shawn at age 17 playing with, of all groups to play with, Black Oak Arkansas. The stuff he plays, years before the world had even heard of Holdsworth or Malmsteen or Eric Johnson is simply stunning.

Shawn is gone now. He got to be so heavy that he could no longer perform standing up, and he was a chain smoker. You do the math.

Sitting in with Aquarium Rescue Unit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5JV63s0ElY&search=holdsworth

Bedroom genius:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX_KUlZ_MHk&search=holdsworth

Black Oak (age 17!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvNlPyxDX5I&search=holdsworth

[Droopy]

1. Amazing

What year was the Black Oak Arkansas video taken?

[Droopy]

2. Shit! He's dead.

Goddammit. Dead at 40. Fuck.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Shredding holds no musical interest to me, but clearly this guy

knew his guitar and could play faster 'n hell! And that's to be appreciated.

Pretty fucking amazing!

[chaska]

4. I can appreciate that people don't appreciate shredding...

but, for better or worse, it simply is some folks way of playing. That's what their personality requires. You have to decide if there's any content there, that's the thing. Al Dimeola and Yngwie both catch a lot of hell for their fast playing, but the truth, like it or not, is that they are monster players, and not just because they can move their fingers fast. Now Yngwie gets into trouble because of his obnoxious personality. Personally, I dont' know the guy, I don't care about his personality. And he is also drawing from material that in a certain sense equates to a comic book level of maturity. A shame that Paganini (mainly) has been adopted by this particular crowd, but he too was a showman, and a highly technical player, so....

All that said, Shawn was a unique composer who just happened to play guitar (and keys) extremely well. He drew from classical and jazz to make music that was sometimes very tuneful and other times just went right over the head. Which is not to say that the man didn't have his own consistent signature compositional style.

I'd urge anyone to seek out his solo album. I think he only did one. He recorded with others as well, but the solo album is his best and strongest statement of his individual talent. The guy played all the instruments, even playing the drums live with his hands on the keyboard, no drum machine. He, for example, assigned the bass drum to one key, a cymbal to another and so on, and actually played them live. I've never heard of anyone else doing this.

Amazing talent.

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. When I saw Chick Corea in the 80s, his guitarist played a drum solo

He had a MIDI-guitar wired to give drum sounds, and he played a drum solo that way - it was pretty wild.

I would like to hear this guy's solo album, and will be on the lookout for it - judging by what you wrote, he seems to be more about the music than just about the shredding, which shredding seems to be the sole interest of so many of those awful shredder dicks, so he's worth a checkout, IMO.

[Elidor]

5. Fantastic fluidity with a minimum of wankery

Love the scat bit in the first vid. Unlike so many shredders, he's not just tied to his scales. He has spirit.

[xchrom]

7. i saw black oak -- waaaay back in the day...